Author: sevanchec3

“live as if you were living for the second time and had acted as wrongly the first time as you are about to act now”

Ida Keeling is what I want to be when I’m 95.

Fit, active, sharp-minded, Ida embodies what everyone wants to be when they are old.  But Ida has many of the characteristics that Pink has discussed.  She has meaning in her life and spirituality (she said in the video that she takes time each day to step back and say thanks), and she has a sense of humor and humbleness.

She has faced many hardships in her life.  Her mother passed away when Ida was a young child.  Her husband died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 42, and she lost two sons in 1979 and 1981 to drug-related killings.

My life will not be easy.  But it will be full and meaningful because I have the power to make it that.

Thinking of life at 90 is a hard thing to do.  I fear dying and don’t want to age.  However, I hope that I can look back on my life and still have a working body and mind to recall what has happened in my life and live each day to the fullest.  Physically, I would love to still be running at 90, and gardening and cooking healthy meals.

What have I accomplished when I look back on my life?  Career wise, I hope to have improved peoples’ quality of life through water purification.  That alone is enough meaning for my career and I truly believe I will enjoy that job.

I hope to have contributed to society through volunteer work to add meaning to my life outside of my occupation.

What will I regret?  This question is the most difficult to answer, because I don’t know what I will do in the future.  I hope that I have taken care of my body though my life, I will regret if I don’t. I hope to have traveled the world and been to every continent.  I hope that I have found love, and have had children with my husband.  Other than this, I am not sure.  All I can do is exactly what Pink ends with, Viktor Frankl’s quote: “Live as if you were living for the second time and had acted as wrongly the first time as you are about to act now.”

Video source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/95-year-woman-sets-running-record/story?id=12960251, February 2011


20% time assignment

Challenge: Devise a meaningful homework assignment of your own invention and post the output of your homework on your blog.

So originally I was reading a book, and I was going to blog about the book once I finished reading.  But let’s be honest, this is Tech, and I’m all for 20% time, but reading a book is more than 20% time.  I did make it about halfway through the book though and it was quite interesting.

In addition to this, I have devised a much more meaningful homework assignment.  This is something on my mind 100% of the time anyways, so I might as well devote my 20% time assignment to it.

On 11/1/11, All Saint’s Day, a friend of mine passed away in a one car accident.  She was only 17, and she wrecked only about a mile from her house.  The police report claimed that she drifted to the side of the road and overcompensated when turning back onto the road.  She then slammed into a on the other side of the road.  The tree was in front of a house, and the people living in the house felt the house shake.  They ran outside and asked her if she was ok.  There was no response, they could tell she was gone.  911 was there within 90 seconds of the crash and there was nothing that they could do.  After further evaluation they determined that Alex may have been texting.  The story has made news all over Pennsylvania because 8 hours before the wreck, a law was passed for the state that prohibits texting.  However, there are other possibilities to texting and driving.  Alex could have been swerving to avoid a deer.  I’ve driven the road that she wrecked on a thousand times, and there is a ton of deer on that road.  I’ve driven with her before and she always seemed like an incredibly safe driver.  Regardless of if it was a deer or texting that caused her accident, the bottom line is that a beautiful girl will never make it to 18 and so many people are mourning her loss.  She was really the sweetest person I have ever known, and so incredibly full of life that you would think it was impossible for her heart to stop beating.  However, I believe in fate, and I believe that it was Alex’s time, as hard as it is to accept.

However, I do think that it is important to cause awareness to the issue of texting and driving. So for my 20% time assignment I have thought of an instrument that would make texting and driving impossible. This instrument would be located in the console of a vehicle and strap a phone into the console when the engine was turned on.  If a person needed to make a call they  could do so through onstar, or some other hands free device.  The cell phone would remain strapped into the console until the engine was shut off.  I don’t understand why this hasn’t been done before, the idea isn’t revolutionary, especially if states are passing laws about texting and driving anyways.  I think there should just be a national law banning texting and driving and requiring car manufacturers to manufacture vehicles with a device restricting phone access while driving.

Also,  I think more should be done about deer.  I think every car should be equipped with deer horns, and possibly some kind of radar should be developed to sense if there are deer on the side of the road in the woods.  With the technology that we have today this should be an easy thing to create.

image from my own camera


“the universe is made of stories, not atoms”

Something doesn’t sit right with me regarding this whole story business.  Don’t get me wrong, I love stories just as much as the next person.  They’re very entertaining, and I don’t deny that they create the entire world that we live in.  However, sometimes I feel like stories can be…. well, a scam.  For example, let’s look at this quote from the Story section in A Whole New Mind:

“Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.”

Well, what about me?  I am human, but I getting a degree in engineering.  Isn’t it my job to think logically?  I don’t like knowing that my decisions can be easily swayed by some saga, it  makes me feel out of control.

 ”Story is high touch because stories almost always pack an emotional punch.”

An example of this is when Pink tells how he chose a bottle of wine based on the story about cancer on the bottle.  Now, I agree with his purchase because  I am all about buying things when the money goes to a good cause.  But is this fair?  Is he getting the best quality of wine for his money?  Does quality matter anymore once stories get involved? Or does the definition of quality change based on the story that is told?

Now for the exercise…

The exercise called Play Photo Finish really stood out to me, because its something I’ve always done: gone to a museum and thought about the people in the picture.  This is really fun to do at the Scaife galleries at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History because they have a large collection of impressionist art, which was the first kind of art that people were shown working and moving, and not God-like.  However, for this story, I am going to choose a piece of artwork that I have a little bit of background on.  This piece of art is The Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegal.

Ampelios trudges down the hillside, beginning his 15 mile journey back home, at the end of another long work day.  He is late today, and extremely tired.  Every day it seems that there is more work to be done and he works longer and longer.  His donkey is tired too and he needs to pay extra attention to make sure it doesn’t loose its footing on the trek home.  The sun is lower than usual, and it is hotter than normal.  Ampelios doesn’t notice the beauty that surrounds him, and why should he.  He has been making the same journey every day since the age of 7.  The scenery is dull to him.  He goes through the motions of the day to provide for his family.  Briefly he looks up and sees a ship leaving the harbor.  He wishes he could be on that ship sailing far away to places unknown.  He wishes he could go to university and learn about what lies beyond his island.  He squints into the sun, thinking he sees something strange.  Oh, it was just a splash, a big fish.  Fish sounds delicious to him, maybe his wife will buy some for a special meal this Sunday.

To combine this with another excerice… a story in 50 words or less! This one is exactly 50:

Ampelios trudges down the hillside, his typical 15 mile journey home. The sun is lower than normal, and it is abnormally hot.  Behind him a man falls from the sky and plunges to his death but he is to consumed in his routine to notice. No one cares about Icarus.

Image from: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/B/bruegel/icarus.jpg.html


“death will be a great relief; no more interviews”

 

Questions that I would like to ask during an interview include:

  • Where do you see the future of Environmental Engineering being?
  • What made you interested in the field of (insert field that the interviewee is in)
  • What are you currently working on?
  • What are the career paths within this field?
  • What would you consider to be the most important aspect of this job?
  • What skill do you think is the most important to have in this field, besides a degree in Environmental Engineering?
  • What is a typical day in this field like?
Professors that I would like to interview at Tech are:
  • Aris P. Georgakakos, Ph. D, Head of the Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Water Resources Program, and Director of the Georgia Water Resources Institute
  • Kevin A. Haas, Ph. D, Specializes in Coastal Engineering
  • Jaehong Kim, Ph. D, Research includes physicochemical processes in drinking water treatment such as chemical disinfection for pathogen inactivation, membrane filtration for removal of organic and inorganic contaminants, disinfection by-product formation control, reverse osmosis technology of sea water desalination, and application of emulsion-liquid membranes
  • Philip J. Roberts, Ph. D, Has worked with fluid mechanics of rivers, lakes, coastal waters, and estuaries; has created mathematical models of wastewater fate and transport and outfalls for wastewater discharge
Resources: http://www.ce.gatech.edu/people/faculty?phpMyAdmin=NDm1O9X7P8CPZZKqQJVJ5bWxWqd
Image from: http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/interviews/

“to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift”

So this isn’t exactly a profile of influential people in my industry, but it is a profile of the people who have influenced me to choose my career path. Environmental engineering is an emerging field because it usually was a track within civil, but lately more universities have been making it a separate major, so there aren’t a lot of famous environmental engineers.

1. Steve Prefontaine 

Background:  Steve Prefontaine (commonly referred to as Pre) was a distance runner from Oregon in the late 1960′s to mid 1970′s when his life was cut short by a car accident.

Quote: 

To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift.

Why he inspires me: Not only was Pre a great runner, he was also a badass, and had an aura about him that makes him admirable.  As his quote says, if you don’t follow your passion and use your talents, you are sacrificing what you have been given.

2.  Blake Mycoskie

Background:  Blake Mycoskie is the founder of TOMS shoes, a revolutionary shoe company based on the design of Argentinian shoes.

Quote:

Who is Tom? There is no Tom. If we sell a pair of shoes today, we give away a pair of shoes tomorrow. Originally we thought of “Tomorrow’s Shoes,” but I could only fit “TOMS” on the label. I had no idea everybody would want to meet him. There is no Tom; it’s an idea for a better tomorrow.

Why he inspires me: Blake often takes heat because of his one-for-one campaign, that he will donate one pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased, because his company is still a for-profit company.  However, he operates four non-profit companies as well, and is a smart entrepreneur in the tactics he has used to create a successful company, and at the end of the day he is donating shoes to children in need and making a difference, giving back while still gaining.

3.  Alicia Silverstone 

Background:  Commonly known for her acting role in the film Clueless, many don’t know that Alicia is an animal and environmental activist, and wrote the book The Kind Diet, about a plant-based vegan diet focusing on decreasing an individuals environmental impact.

Quote: 

Veganism is a way of living consciously on the planet.

Why she inspires me: The book The Kind Diet is the reason I became vegan, and the reason I began to research the field of Environmental Engineering. Her website is also great (www.thekindlife.com)

4.  Rachel Carson

Background:  Rachel Carson lived during the first half of the 20th century and pioneered the environmental movement through her writings.

Quote:

The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.

Why she is inspirational: She created the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) which is somewhere I would potentially like to work, and although she wasn’t an engineer, she was a writer, biologist, held degrees in genetics and zoology, and was a strong female role model.

5.  Chico Mendes 

Background:  Francisco Alves Mendes Filho was a Brazilian man who fought to save the rainforest, and ended up becoming a public figure until his assassination in 1988.

Quote:  

At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realize I am fighting for humanity.

Why he is inspirational:  Chico embodies what I love about Environmental Engineering.  Through working to better the environment, you have to potential to better humanity.

 

 

 

 

Photo creds (in order of appearance):

Steve Prefontaine: http://www.sportshollywood.com/prehistory.html

Blake Mycoskie: Brigitte Sire

Alicia Silverstone: thekindlife.com

Rachel Carson: http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/286.html

Chico Mendes: Pilly Cowell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


“if your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough”

Less than 1% of the world’s water is available for all living things. The more that humans use, the less there is for everyone else.

Image from http://www.hqwalls.com.ua/eng/animals_003.html

Everyone thinks that water freshwater is a renewable resource.  But we are using up freshwater so fast, that nature can’t replenish what we are using. It is a finite resource.

Some people say it is great that I have the ability to put so much time and effort into volunteering, or doing things for others, when it seems that I get nothing from.  However, what comes from volunteering, and what will come from my future job occupation, is something priceless.  Knowing that you have made a difference in a person’s life is the best feeling I have experienced in the 18 years of my life.

I value this feeling over any kind of currency, and have known for a while exactly what I want to do with my life.  My high school guidance counselor warned me not to be set on one path for my life because a large majority of college students change their major or career goals multiple times.  However, I know exactly what I will do with my life, and Georgia Tech is simply a tool providing me with the means to achieve my goals and dreams.  It’s not the most glamourous job, but it’s what I want to do.  I want to change people’s lives through working as an environmental engineer, specializing in water purification, here in the United States, and also in French-speaking African countries.

I truly don’t know where my very specific dream emerged from, but I can draw some ideas based on my life experiences.  I have always been a very compassionate person, and was raised with ideals that included keeping the environment clean.  From elementary school through high school I excelled in math and science, and my teachers began to suggest that I look into studying engineering. Then, in 2008, I decided to follow a plant based , or macrobiotic vegan diet, and doing so furthered my interest in the environment.

Contrary to popular belief,  I chose to change my eating habits because of the environmental impact that animal products have, as well as the health benefits to a vegan diet, and not because of animal rights.  At the time I really wasn’t eating meat because I’ve never been fond of the taste, so transitioning wasn’t difficult.  As I have continued to read about veganism, I have discovered and become more interested in the environment, and have since started growing a lot of my own food and composting.  I decided that I want to work in third world countries because I have been so blessed in my life, and want to give back to those who haven’t been as fortunate as I have, and I chose French speaking African countries because  about half of the 54 countries in Africa have French as their official language or secondary language, and I really enjoy the language.

When I leave Georgia Tech I am certain that I will be equipped with the skills and resources to make my dream a reality.  When I was searching for a college, I asked myself “how well will this school prepare me to achieve my dream?,” rather than ”is this school better than the other schools I am looking at?”

I choose Georgia Tech because of how excited and involved the students that I talked with seemed about programs like FIMRC (Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children), EWB (Engineers Without Borders), AEES (The Association of Environmental Engineers and Scientists), as well as opportunities to study abroad, such as the Georgia Tech Lorraine program, and work abroad through the CO-OP program, or international plan.

I’m not sure if this all adds up to my dream of working in French speaking African countries doing water purification, but it hopefully provides a basis to make some sense of my crazy dream.  Coming to college has already been so exciting because it is the way that I will have the ability to achieve my dream, and thus achieve my career goals.

Georgia Tech is participating in the green movement through the new Clough Commons building!

Image from http://greenbuildingchronicle.com/2011/08/22/new-georgia-tech-undergraduate-commons-built-by-turner-construction-company-features-latest-environmental-and-energy-saving-technologies/


“there are no strangers, only friends we haven’t met”

Since we are in the midst of finishing our project, I thought I’d post an update about what to expect on the day of the Invention Mob presentations! When we began brainstorming, we had a set idea of our final project being a collage of images.  However, now we’re in the midst of composing a rap, making a music video, and creating a prezi, in addition to the Facebook page we’ve already made (https://www.facebook.com/groups/177915475620354/ check it out!).

This project has gone into an entirely different direction and its really cool to watch it unfold. It has built on previous ideas and unfolded in a very Ze Frank type of way. Not only have we, as a group, connected with people, the people we have connected with have also connected with each other.

Its interesting to see them connect because by them communicating, some collaborative creative project may come from it.  So far we have featured 4 Artists of the Day, very different from each other.  The first one was a musician, the second an artist, the third a baker, and the fourth a fire dancer (all students at Tech!).

For our final video we may include them, and ask them, if they were to collaborate, a project would turn out.  Our project is almost finished, but we still change in everyday so that the final project is the best it can be. So much has happened since our original idea, and the project has taken an entirely new direction, but we like where it is heading, and hopefully we will end with something that Ze Frank would approve of.